Cellular telephony has revolutionized personal communications. People are now able to enjoy ready access to voice and data networks. The continued phenomenal progress of electronics has encouraged development of smaller handheld wireless communication devices (“mobile units”) with increased functionality, e.g., music, video, and tactile simulation of base audio. Certain components of mobile units, such as antennas, displays, multifunction transducers, and hinge mechanisms do not continually scale down in size and consequently become limiting factors in efforts to maintain or reduce the size of mobile units while at the same time increase or maintain functionality. In as much as the wireless communication signals have a wavelength that is comparable to the size of mobile units, the antennas of the mobile units are very subject to disturbance by parts of the mobile units themselves. Given the trends toward higher functionality and smaller size mobile units, it is often necessary to place other internal parts of the mobile units close to the antenna. Placing other internal parts close to the antenna often leads to degraded antenna performance. It would be desirable to be able to provide an antenna system that performs well notwithstanding the close proximity of other parts of the mobile units.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.